This was another excellent run to cover
these places of archaeological importance. Most of the riding was done below
the hot sun, so it was a little tiring but the excellent roads made it up for it.

INTRO
& PLAN:

It had been 2 weeks since our last ride to
PP reservoir in Tamil Nadu. Initially we planned to cover only Somnathpur and
then it changed to Somnathpur & Talakad. And yeah Zehu was the only one on
the confirmed list.

ASSEMBLE:

Yeah I was up at around 04:00hrs, had some
coffee, did a few push-ups & was all set to ride. We met up at
Rajarajeswari nagar Arch, as scheduled and left Bengaluru.

TIME: 06:00 hrs

RIDE
1: (Bengaluru - Maddur Tiffany’s)

This was an 80kms stretch of pure cruising.
4-lane state highway made riding easy. With only one tea break on the way we
reached Maddur Tiffany’s for breakfast. We had a light breakfast and left MT.

TIME: 08:15 hrs

RIDE2:
(Maddur Tiffany’s - Somnathpura)

This was a 60kms stretch which had a
mixture of good & bad roads. As we left Maddur, we took a left deviation
towards Mallavalli. This stretch is in seriously in a very bad state, but one
thing to cheer about is the slush green fields on either side of the roads.
After reaching Mallavali we took a right deviation to continue towards
Somnathpura, this stretch initially had great roads, after which there were no
roads at all. So.., after riding on the muddy roads for quite sometime we
reached Somnathpura.

TIME: 10:00 hrs

SOMNATHAPURA:

The Chennakeshava temple at this place is
constructed in Hoysala style of architecture. Lots of carvings of Gods, Goddesses,
animals, musicians etc., can be clearly seen. This temple has perfect symmetry and was constructed
during the reign of Narasimha III (Yeah I've done my homework alright :P)

So… as the sun was up, we sat in the shade
outside the temple taking rest. We scrapped the plan of going to Talakadu and
decided to head back home via SH-17(Mysore
road) again.

TIME: 11:00 hrs

RIDE
3: (Somnathpura – Srirangapatna)

This was about a 40kms stretch through
peaceful green fields. As we passed the town of Bannur, the thought of covering Srirangapatna
occurred to us, we headed towards SH-17 & then towards Srirangapatna.

TIME: 12:00 hrs

SRI
RANGAPATNA:

Alright listen I’ll be giving a brief
overview of the places to visit at his wonderful town. We spent 2hours at this
place pulling off 2 complete laps of the entire town on our bikes. So… here’s
the list of places:

1.
Dariya Daulat Bagh: It was Tippu’s summer palace built in 1784. It is
completely a teak structure with beautiful rich paintings. Guns, Swords,
Daggers, Medals, Coins which were used during Tippu’s reign are displayed here.

2. Gumbaz:
Burial chamber of Tippu, his father (Hyder Ali) & mother (Fatima). Interior
walls of this place are covered with tiger stripes as they were Tippu’s
favourite.

3. Ghosai
ghat & Sangama: About 1 km from the Gumbaz, this is a famous picnic
spot. The river from here flows into the Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu.

4. Jama
Masijid: This was Tippu’s favourite mosque. It has an unusually small dome.

5. The
Obelisk: Place where Tippu breathed his last, trying to stop the invasion
on British. His body was lying dead here for two days before the locals
discovered it.

6. Captain
Bailey’s Dungeon: Tippu’s prisoners of war were imprisoned here. Prison
hooks onto which the prisoners were chained still remain in the dungeon. Once a
cannon ball had rolled back & pierced the ceiling of the dungeon, this is
another thing that has to be observed at this place.

7. SriRanganathaswamyTemple: It is the main temple, opened
throughout the year. Lots of gift shops are present outside the temple. Bought
a lots gifts for friends & family back home :)

8. Lal
Mahal: This is the main Srirangapatna fort. This fort was constructed in
Indo-Islamic style. It was unfortunately closed during our visit.

9. Thomas
Innman’s dungeon: Okay this is a less famous place, but trust me the best
among others. Similar to Bailey’s dungeon, prisoners were held captive here.
But at his place the entire dungeon is surrounded by a water-pit and river water could
be released by opening gates into this pathway. This would lead the dungeon
surrounded with water. (Like the “He-man” castle haha :P)

So those are the important places that have
to be covered in case you visit. After the rounds we left this wonderful place
unwillingly.

TIME: 14:00 hrs

RIDE
4: (Srirangapatna – Maddur Tiffany’s(Old) – Bengaluru)

This was about a 130kms stretch with one
lunch stop in between. As we left Srirangapatna we cruised along SH-17 at a
fairly decent pace to reach Mandya for some re-fuelling. Then proceeded further
towards Maddur to reach the original Maddur Tiffany’s.

TIME: 15:30 hrs

After having heavy lunch, we left MT. We covered the next 80kms easily, all we had to
do was stay awake haha… the heavy lunch and the hot sun made us feel dizzy.

So with some no nonsense riding we reached
the JnanaBharati split stop thanked each other for participating in the run
& headed back to our respective homes.